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Robert Davenport
Robert Davenport (1623-1639 fl.) was an English poet and dramatist. Life Nothing is known of his early life or education; the title pages of two of his plays identify him as a "Gentleman," though there is no record of him at either of the two universities or the Inns of Court. Scholars have guessed that he was born around 1590; if, as some scholars think, he wrote the Address "To the knowing Reader" in the 1st quarto of King John and Matilda, he was still alive in 1655. He enters the historical record in 1624, when 2 of his plays were licensed by the Master of the Revels.G. E. Bentley, The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, vol. 3 (1956), 225-238. He published in 1623 A Crowne for a Conquerour; and Too Late to call backe Yesterday: Two poems, the one divine, the other Morall, 4to. To the 2nd poem, which has a separate title-page, is prefixed a dedicatory epistle "to my noble Friends, Mr. Richard Robinson and Mr. Michael Bowyer," 2 famous actors. From the epistle, which is signed "Rob. Davenport," we learn that the poems were written at sea.Bullen, 112. Davenport is also the author of a tragedy, King John and Matilda, 1655, 1662, 4to, and of 2 comedies, (1) A New Trick to cheat the Divell, 1639, 4to; (2) The City Night-Cap, 1661, 4to. It appears from Sir Henry Herbert's Office-Book that The City Night-Cap was licensed for the stage as early as 1624. In the same year an unpublished play of Davenport, The History of Henry I, was licensed by Herbert. It was among the plays destroyed by Warburton's cook, and in Warburton's list is attributed to Shakespeare and Davenport. Doubtless it is the play which was entered in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 9 Sept. 1653, as the work of Shakespeare and Davenport, under the title of Henry I and Henry II. The tragedy, King John and Matilda, which has considerable merit, was written in or before 1639; for it is mentioned in a list of plays that belonged at that time to the Cockpit Company. A copy in the Dyce Library of the 1662 edition has on the title-page "written by W. Daven. gent." To A New Trick to cheat the Divell is prefixed by the publisher an address "to the courteous reader and gentle peruser,' in which the play is described as "now an Orphant and wanting the Father which first begot it." From this statement it has been inferred that Davenport was dead at the time of publication; but the publisher may have merely intended to say that the author was at a distance. Davenport certainly seems to have been living in 1640; for commendatory verses by him are prefixed to 2 plays published in that year — Rawlins's Rebellion and Richards's Messalina. Indeed, it is probable that he was alive in 1651, when Samuel Sheppard published a collection of Epigrams, 1 of which (Lib. ii. Epigr. 19) is addressed "To Mr. Davenport on his play called the Pirate." Sheppard had a high opinion of The Pirate, a play which was never published, and declared, "Thou rival'st Shakespeare though thy glory's lesse."Bullen, 113. Writing Plays Throughout King John and Matilda (printed 1655), as in its closing scene quoted by Charles Lamb in his Dramatic Specimens, there is much “passion and poetry” which saves the piece from being classed as pure melodrama.Britannica, 7, 853. The City-Night-Cap was licensed in 1624, but not printed until 1661. The underplot of this unsavory play was borrowed from Cervantes and Boccaccio, and Aphra Behn’s Amorous Prince (1671) is an adaptation from it. A New Tricke to Cheat the Divell (printed 1639) is a farcical comedy, which contains among other things the idea of the popular supper story which reappears in Hans Andersen’s Little Claus and Big Claus. As told by Davenport the story closely resembles the Scottish Freires of Berwick, which was printed in 1603. 2 unpublished plays, The Fatal Brothers and The Politic Queen; or, Murther will out, were entered in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 29 June 1660, as the work of Davenport. Another unpublished play, The Woman's Mistake, is ascribed in the ‘Stationers' Registers,’ 9 September 1653, to Davenport and Drue. The Bloody Banquet, a tragedy, 1620 (2nd ed. 1639), by ‘T. D.,’ has been assigned without evidence to Davenport. The City Night-Cap is included in the various editions of Dodsley's Old Plays. Davenports plays were reprinted by A.H. Bullen in Old English Plays (new series, 1890). Verse 3 significant poems by Davenport also survive. They are: A Crown for a Conqueror, a religious poem, and Too Late to Call Back Yesterday, a moral dialogue, both published in 1639; and A Survey of the Sciences, which survived in manuscript and was published only in the 1880's. In the Cambridge University Library (D. d. x. 30) is a manuscript poem by Davenport entitled Survey of the Sciences. A volume of manuscript poems addressed by Davenport to William earl of Newcastle was in Thorpe's Catalogue of Manuscripts, 1836 (No. 1450). Hunter (Chorus Vatum) mentions a manuscript poem by Davenport entitled Policy without Piety too Subtle to be Sound: Piety without Policy too Simple to be Safe, &c. See also *List of British poets *List of English-language playwrights References * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 7, 2018. * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 7, 2018. Notes External links * . Original article is at "Davenport, Robert" * Davenport, Robert Davenport, Robert Category:English male dramatists and playwrights Category:Year of birth missing Category:Year of death missing